FE54 - making her mine.

[talkingcars]

The ZS180 PG1 is the only PG1 I've driven extensivly that has been able to change well clutchlessly, the ZR160 is okay but the 2.0 O series version just doesn't like it at all.

When driving manual trucks I tend to clutchless change 90% of the time because the clutch is so heavy.

If you want to change into neutral when on over run a small blip of the gas to raise the revs by a couple of hundred RPM helps, or sometimes even makes it possible.

It is a skill I'd recomend practicing when the clutch is working for such events.

[talkingcars]

Next came the exhaust.

The one that came with the car was blowing a lot and I suspected that it was the flexi joint as the system hung quite low and caught on the speed humps (read as Himalayan foothills) on the way into work. Normally I avoid them but on the day the sensors failed I caught one quite hard as I was rushing home to get a job offer conformation letter (I got the job but turned it down).

I had the Powerflow duplex system I'd had made up for the mk1 that I wanted to fit so with a week before the annual run to the M-in-L and the blow was getting too much I decided to change it over.

Friday night after work I parked the car with the front wheel on the kerb to raise it up a bit, tried to reach the joint for the rear box, decided it was easier to pop the wheel off and was then amazed how easily the bolts came undone and the rear box came off.

My son arrived at this point to give me a hand, mostly passing spanners etc.

The wheel went back on, the back came down, the front went up and I slid underneath to do the middlebox to cat bolts, the O/S one came undone easily but the N/S one managed a couble of turns and seized up, proberbly not helped by working from the O/S.

I decided to have a go at undoing the down pipe to cat joint to slide both pipes out as one. As soon as I got under there the skys opened so called it a day, Friday.

The following morning I was up early and started at the down pipe joint, all 3 bolts were dead easy to remove. All that was left was the post cat lambda probe. I put the spanner on it to find it wasn't even hand tight - the source for the blow!

[talkingcars]

Then came reasembly.

I had bought all new gaskets, clamps and hangers, these turned out to be shorter by about 30% than the old ones which goes a long way to explain why the system was so low.

I roughly assembled the rear and mid sections, powerflow made this as a slip over joint, and it went togeather like a ring on a finger. I then did the same for the cat and to the down pipe. It must have looked funny with me lying under the car lifting bits of exhaust with feet, knees, hands, etc. while I attached the hangers.

I got it all togeather and tightened up, attached the second tail pipe, another slide over joint and she fired up first turn of the key and settled down to a nice burble.

I went indoors to grab my phone prior to going for a test drive, just in case. There was a test messege from my lad saying he was on the way up to give me a hand - typical children!

He and Mrs TC were outside the house when I returned, both making approving noises and saying how it doesn't look too bad being 2" inside the mk2 bumper, personally I don't agree so will either be extending the pipes slightly or getting powerflow to do it.

She sounds so much nicer and has so much more mid range torque - definatly worth the effort.

It's been on for a couple of weeks and at least 3 times Mrs TC has commented on how nice it sounds. She then commentd "child" yesterday as we went through a tunnel on the motorway when I dropped the window a bit, slipped out of gear and blipped the throttle - LOL.

And the burble on high RPM overrun is superb.

[petet16]

But that's the law in tunnels

[talkingcars]

Having got the exhaust done quicker than expected and only having to use power tools to cut the bolt to seperate the cat and centre box I decided to fit the BMC CDA.

I estimated it would take half an hour, told Mrs TC it would take an hour and in the end it took 47 minutes. I forgot to take off the lower battery tray mount so will have to take it out again at some point as the bracket I made for the ECU mounts on here.

I am well impressed with the inlet tempretures so far, at speed on the motorway I'm seeing ambiant or ambiant +1. With a bit of tiding up I should see this much of the time.

[talkingcars]

Not updated this for a while as I haven't done much on her in a while.

In the second week in November one of the rear brake pads reached it's limit. Unfortunately we needed a working "proper" car ) for the impending first visit of the mother-in-law the following weekend, Mrs TC's ZR did the job. I had the nearly new calipers and discs from GV51 to fit but no time so FE54 got parked up and I used the F for myself until Christmas.

Once Christmas day was out of the way I located the bits including the braided hoses I bought for GV51 about 5 years ago, just couldn't find the plastic brackets that I need to use.

I replaced the calipers etc, left on the Monday wasn't too bad, one of the screws for the disc came out, the other required drilling but the thread span out of the hole, surprisingly the screws from GV51 were still in one of the discs so I used one of these.

Then on Tuesday I did the right, both screws were well knackered so drilled both out, "cleaned out the threads in the holes but damaged the thread at the top of the hole so the screw didn't quite grip. Apart from that it went ok, just need to find some longer screws.

[talkingcars]

I then checked the lights, all are fine except the N/S/R, after cleaning up the contacts it seams that the LED bulbs are failing AND the one for the fog fell out and into the lens!

Jobs I need to do for the MOT are fix the heater circuit for the rear lambda probe as it keeps triggering the MIL. It was damaged when the wiring for the cam sensor failed in August.

I need a new front number plate where Mrs TC reversed into it, and, then blamed me!

I shall also check for rust around the front foot wells, just in case.

The O/S/F CV joint has failed, should have got the garage to replace it when they did the boot for the last MOT. I might get them to do it this time, they only want £70 labour.

[talkingcars]

And don't let me forget to get them to bleed the brakes, as they do a complete fluid change it's £40 well spent in my book.

[peterzs]

Saves a lot of hassle, for £40.

Must admit my one goes into a garage for the usual freeing off calipers/pads.

[Dan1971]

Don't forget to get them to bleed the brakes.